James Russell Lowell Quotes

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.

In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested.

Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

Communism means barbarism, but Socialism means, or wishes to mean, cooperation and community of interests, sympathy, the giving to the hands… a larger share than hitherto in the wealth they must combine to produce – means, in short, the practical application of Christianity to life.

Till after our Civil War it never seemed to enter the head of any foreigner, especially of any Englishman, that an American had what could be called a country, except as a place to eat, sleep, and trade in. Then it seemed to strike them suddenly. “By Jove, you know, fellahs don’t fight like that […]

Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.

Children are God’s Apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope and peace.

Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those that never come.